Hey guys,
I have a new Athearn Genisis SD70 Ace factory fitted with a Tsunami TSU-GN 1000 DSD. For the life of me I can not seem to map FX6 to Function button6.
I can map other things to this function like dimming etc, but not FX6. I am trying to get ditch lights working with grade crossing logic. The decoder actually came with both ditch lights wired to FX5 and operated by F5. So when you press F5 both ditch lights come on and stay on.
I removd the right ditch light wires from FX5 and fitted them to FX6. (One wire to each terminal) Then I mapped CV40 =4. This should now turn on the right ditch light. But it doesn't.
Thinking maybe I had an overide running somewhere on F6 I reset the decoder back to factory settings and tried again. Still nothing.
I have also tried to follow "Flymags" video on Utube to set the ditch lights up to work with the horn,
again ONLY the left light works, not the right.
Can any-one help with this please.
All suggestions appreciated thanks.
Go to this page and download the Diesel users guide. On page 32 you will find how to set the FX lights to crossing grade logic. Also if you set yourself up with decoder pro it's very easy.
You can also set the lights to come on with the headlight. You don't have to keep them mapped to function 5 and 6.
http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals.php
Springfield PA
Using Decoder Pro will make this a lot easier. If you plan on doing much work with sound decoders, i would suggest that you try Decoder Pro.
Hi guys. Yes I already use Decoder Pro AND I have already downloaded the manual.. I think I have funny boards as this is happening on BOTH these locos. I purchased 2 of them and neither of them seem to have FX6 enabled. I have set the cv so the ditch lights to come on with the headlight as a test. When I have both ditch lights plugged into FX5, and map to Fn1 they work great off the headlight button. But when i transfer the wires of one ditch light over to FX6 and reset the cv for Fn1 to allow for f6 it still doesnt work. I am starting to think they have disabled FX6 on these boards as both ditch lights were hooked up to FN5 in the first place. Again any sugg app.
Is Athearn using light bulbs or LED's on this locomotive?
What do you have CV40 set at?
It's Athearn, so light bulbs.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
OK here are my CV settings (and why)
My aim is to have the ditch lights flash when the horn sounds. (Grade Crossing)
I want to map this to the F5 (or F6, I don't really care) button on the controller. From page 24 I set Button F5=CV39= 2+4. So cv39=6 Button F5 should now control FX5 and FX6 on the DSD board.
I want to map F6 button to dim, so CV40=128 (this works fine)
With the above cv's set I should have both ditch lights come on when i press button F5... BUT ONLY ONE DOES. The light connected to Function6 on the board does not come on. I have tried the above by mapping button F6 (CV40=6) again only the Function5 light works.
Heres the clincher. When I do the exact same thing above with both lights wired to output Fx5 THEY BOTH WORK But then I cant set them out of phase if they are both wired to the same output..
Then I set CV51=41 and CV52=57.(FX5 and FX6 crossing Logic on) So now when I sound the horn the ditch lights should flash (as long as I have pressed button F5 first)
AGAIN only one light comes on when I press button F5 and only that light flashes when I sound the horn..... When I trace the wires back to the board, it is FX5 that works and FX6 is the problem. Basicly FX6 Out-puts on the board are not working. But how could this be with both locos. What are my chances of getting 2 locos with exactly the same faulty boards. As I mentioned Flymang video on U-tube explains exactly how to do this and I have followed it and I still can't seem to get it. As I mentioned both locos had both sets of ditch lights wired to FX5 outputs... Fx6 outputs were left blank..
I wonder why?????? Has anyone else found this problem with this loco/board combination.
AM I MISSING SOMETHING ????
Thanks again for all your suggestions.
I was hopeing the lights were LED's. I guess Athearn has a billion of there bulbs on hand to use up before they start using lED's.
Thinking OP had swaped the wires on the leads to the light .
I hope that some of what I say here makes some sense. For F6 to work you need to have CV40 set to 4. Not sure why you would want to just dim the F6 function. Also both F5 and F6 must be turned on to work. You want to set up the lights to flash off and on when you blow the horn, then come back on steady after a bit. This is a type I ditch light. So I would try this, CV51 set to 41 and CV 52 set to 57. You can also set the hold flash time by setting CV60 to 5 which will give you about 5 seconds of flash time after you release the horn button. Again F5 and F6 must be onto work. It might be possible that with CV40 set to 128 the F6 function does not turn on the bulb, but I am unsure about this.
I hope that some of what I say here makes some sense.
For F6 to work you need to have CV40 set to 4. Not sure why you would want to just dim the F6 function. Also both F5 and F6 must be turned on to work.
You want to set up the lights to flash off and on when you blow the horn, then come back on steady after a bit. This is a type I ditch light. So I would try this, CV51 set to 41 and CV 52 set to 57. You can also set the hold flash time by setting CV60 to 5 which will give you about 5 seconds of flash time after you release the horn button. Again F5 and F6 must be onto work.
It might be possible that with CV40 set to 128 the F6 function does not turn on the bulb, but I am unsure about this.
The key is to map FX5 to Phase A and FX6 to phase b to get them to flash out of synch.
Here's a screen shot of decoder pro with the correct settings. Notice how much easier it is. Also notice one FX is on phase a and the other is phase b. Another thing to notice is that they are mapped to the horn so they automatically flash on horn activation. If you can't read the screen shot try downloading the large size file.
Here's a larger version Hopefully easier to read.
Hamltnblue, the headlamps and ditch lights on your decoder-pro screen show LED's. Won't that set up screw up something because of the Athearn 1 1/2 volt bulbs ?
Just curious.
Wadda ya mean I'm old ? Just because I remember gasoline at 9 cents a gallon and those big coal burning steamers.
That's because mine are LED's. For yours you simply leave them set at lamps. Either way it won't hurt anything. The setting adjusts for LED's so that the flashing effects are correct. Mine happens to be an MTH that I converted. The menu's should be the same though.
Here's the descripton from the manual on the LED setting LED Compensation - Improves lighting effect contrast when using LEDs instead of incandescent lamps.
LED Compensation
Yeah, it won't hurt anything. What happens with LEDs on the light bulb setting is that the 'dim' portion of a lighting effect won't be 'dim' at all and itg will look like the effect is nto working. The LED setting reduces teh 'on' time to make an LED actually dim. Decoders don't actuially reduce the voltage to dim lights - they use PWM just like used to drive the motor. The greater percentage of time the power is on, the brighter the light is.
I have just had confirmation via email from Athearn trains (and I quote) "FN 6 is not a "live" function"
So theres the reason why 180 deg phase flashing ditch lights won't work on Athearn/Tsunami OEM boards.
One suggestion is to install a function only decoder, such as the TCS FL2 to drive your ditch lights. It's a small easy to install unit with a very nice effects control circuit. The ditch lights look more realistic in flashing mode than the non-OEM Tsunami. You can tweak the holdover time and the blink rate to get the desired effect.
Go to TCS here:
http://www.tcsdcc.com
Carl in Florida - - - - - - - - - - We need an HO Amtrak SDP40F and GE U36B oh wait- We GOT THEM!
How do you wire something like that in???
The wiring is fairly basic on the FL2 the unit has 6 wires; RED, BLACK, BLUE, GREEN, VIOLET. BLACK/WHITE
BLACK/WHITE = DECODER GROUND - NOT USED IN THIS CASE !!!!
RED = right hand rail loco forward
BLACK= left hand rail loco forward
BLUE= LED common
GREEN= Ditch Light 1 function
VIOLET=Ditch Light 2 function.
the black and red wires are wired in parallel to the Tsunami; in other words attach the wires to the one end of the Tsunami on the outside terminals where the truck pickup wires are attached. the ditch light LED's are removed from the Tsunami completely and wired as indicated above it does not mattter which function wire goes to which ditch light; typically the GREEN function is tied to the fireman side LED.
for more information check the followiing: http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Literature/Decoders/HO_Scale/FL-Series/FL2.pdf
http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Literature/Literature.htm
TIP: if your locomotive has a 4 digit address I recommend setting the 2 digit address to 4 instead of 3 prior to installing the decoder in the locomotive. Program the 4 digit address in the FL2 to match the Tsunami's 4 digit address. That way you if you have to tweak the settings later, you can set CV29 to 6; this will switch both decoders to 2 digit mode, the Tsunami on 3 and the FL2 on 4. You can program them individually in ops mode using the 2 digit address; when finished, set CV29 to 38 (or 34 if no DC operation is warranted) on BOTH decoders; this will activate the 4 digit address you initially set on both decoders. Using this method, CV setting overlap is avoided. I can go into more detail if necessary.
What you are saying is the locomotive has scaled back version of a TSU-GN 1000 decoder?
I would guess Athearn saved a few cents per locoomotive by doing this.
Flashing ditch lights are not on every prototype locomotive.
At least you know that your not crazey.